SCANDENTIA, Wagner, 1855

Pearch, Malcolm J., 2011, A review of the biological diversity and distribution of small mammal taxa in the terrestrial ecoregions and protected areas of Nepal 3072, Zootaxa 3072 (1), pp. 1-286 : 70-71

ORDER SCANDENTIA

FAMILY TUPAIIDAE

Tupaia belangeri ( Wagner, 1841) MAP No. 53 Northern Tree shrew

Cladobates belangeri Wagner, 1841: 42 . Siriam, near Rangoon, Pegu, Burma [ Myanmar].

Tupaia belangeri lepcha Thomas, 1922a: 428 . Narbong, near Darjeeling, India, 2,000 ft.

Records.— Johnson et al. (1980) (as Tupaia glis lepcha Thomas, 1922a ) (see note 1): Chatra (USNM 290063, USNM 290064).

Non-specific records.— Blanford (1888 –91): "... as far west as Nepal." (as Tupaia ferruginea —see note 2).— Helgen (2005): "... far E. India and Nepal, ...".—Mitchell (1975) (as T. g. lepcha): Nepal.

Note.— 1 Measurements of USNM specimens are given in Appendix II.

2 Tupaia ferruginea Raffles 1821 , is regarded as a synonym of Tupaia glis ( Diard, 1820) (see Helgen, 2005: 106, who states that the distribution of T. glis extends no further north than about 10ºN.). The species identified by Blanford ( Tupaia ferruginea ) now would be regarded most probably as Tupaia belangeri : concerning the distribution of ferruginea , the author, himself, writes: "Throughout Burma, extending to Assam, and along the lower slopes of the Himalayas, between 3000 and 6000 feet ... as far west as Nepal. To the southward the rufous form [as opposed to the ferruginous form being described by Blanford] extends to the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo."

3 Hinton & Fry (1923) state that Tupaia belangeri chinensis Anderson, 1879 , which Helgen (2005) places in the synonymy of belangeri , was not collected from Nepal but probably from Sikkim.

4 Worth & Shah (1969) record Tupaia glis from Nepal based on the collection of the species by L. W. Quate and M. Nadchatram between November, 1965 and January, 1966 but the record is discounted in light of the limits on the species' geographical distribution given by Helgen (2005). The Tupaia to which Worth & Shah (1969) refer is most likely belangeri and it is probable that the single specimen that constitutes the record was misidentified.

I.U.C.N. status.—Least concern (ver. 3.1, 2001)

Year of assessment: 2008.